(Tiger Saga #1) Tiger's Curse

by Colleen Houck

  “What do you mean, ‘How are we going to reach it?’ Climb up on my shoulders. We need to do this together.”

  I laughed. “Uh, Ren, I think you’d better come up with another plan. Like maybe leap up as you super-tigers do and catch it in your mouth or something.”

  He smiled at me malevolently. “No. You,” he touched my nose with his finger, “are going to sit on my shoulders.”

  I moaned, “Please stop saying that.”

  “Come here. I’ll talk you through it. It’s child’s play.”

  He picked me up and set me on the stone edge of the reflecting pool. Then he spun around with his back to me. “Okay, climb on.”

  He held out his hands. I tentatively grabbed them and swung one leg over his shoulder, complaining the entire time. I almost lifted my leg back off, but he anticipated that I would chicken out and reached back with his arm to grab my other leg and hoist me up before I could retreat.

  After I yelled at him to no effect, he held my hands and, easily balancing my weight, walked back to the tree. He took his time looking for the right place and then began instructing me.

  “See that thick branch right above your head?”

  “Yes.”

  “Let go of one of my hands and reach up to grab it.”

  I did and threatened, “Don’t drop me!”

  He bragged, “Kelsey, there is absolutely no danger of me dropping you.”

  I grabbed the branch and clung to it.

  “Good. Now reach up with your other hand and grab the same branch. I’ll be holding your legs, don’t worry.”

  I reached up and got a good hold of the branch, but my palms were sweaty, and if he hadn’t been supporting me, I was sure I would have fallen.

  “Hey, Ren, this was a great idea and all, but I’m still a good foot or two away from the fruit. What do you expect me to do now?”

  In response, he laughed and said, “Hold on a sec.”

  “What do you mean, ‘hold on a sec’?”

  He yanked my tennis shoes off my feet and then said, “Hold on to the branch and stand up.”

  Frightened, I yelped and strangled the branch for dear life. Ren was pushing me up above the branch even higher. I glanced down and saw he was cupping my feet in his hands, supporting my entire body weight with his arms alone.

  I hissed, “Ren, are you crazy? I’m too heavy for you.”

  He scoffed drolly, “Obviously not, Kelsey. Now pay attention. Keep your hold on the branch, and I want you to step from my hand to my shoulder, first one foot, and then the other.”

  He lifted my right leg first, and I felt my heel bump against his upper arm. Carefully, I shifted my foot to rest it on his wide shoulder, and then did the same with the other one. I looked at the fruit, which was now hanging directly across from me and bouncing slightly up and down.

  “Okay, I’m going to try and grab the fruit now. Hold on.”

  His hands had moved to the back of my calves, and he squeezed them tightly. I pushed off from the branch, which was now at my waist, and stretched my arm to reach the bobbing fruit. It was attached to a long, woody stem that shot off from the top of the tree.

  My fingers grazed it, and it shifted away from me for a moment. When it swung back to me, I wrapped my hand around it and pulled gently.

  It didn’t want to move. I tugged a bit harder, careful not to damage the golden fruit. Surprisingly, it felt like a real mango with leathery smooth skin, even though it twinkled with dazzling golden light. I braced my body on the branch again, yanked firmly, and was finally able to pluck it from the stem.

  All at once, my body iced over and became rigid, and my mind was carried away in a black vision. A burning heat seared my chest, and I stood in complete darkness. A ghostly figure started making its way toward me. The misty features swirled around a shape and solidified into a form. It was Mr. Kadam! He was clutching at his chest. When he removed his hand, I saw the amulet he was wearing was glowing red hot. I looked down and saw mine too, glowing in the same manner. I tried to reach out to him, and I spoke, but he couldn’t seem to hear me or I him.

  Another ghostly figure swirled up across from us and slowly took form. He was gripping a large amulet as well. When he became alert, he turned his eyes to Mr. Kadam. Immediately, he focused his attention on the amulet Mr. Kadam was wearing.

  The man was dressed in expensive, modern clothing. His quick eyes showed intelligence, confidence, determination, and something else, something dark, something . . . evil. He tried to take a step forward, but a barrier of some kind prevented any of us from moving.

  His expression tightened and twisted into a vile rage that, though quickly suppressed, continued to swirl like a stalking beast behind his eyes. Black, desperate fear congealed in my stomach as the man turned his attention to me. He clearly wanted something.

  His eyes examined me carefully from head to toe and then settled on the glowing amulet around my neck. Gleaming malice and loathsome delight swept over his face. I looked at Mr. Kadam for support, but he was studying the man meticulously as well.

  I was very afraid. I cried out for Ren, but even I couldn’t hear my own voice.

  The man pulled something from his pocket and started muttering words to himself. I tried to read his lips, but he seemed to be speaking in another language. Mr. Kadam’s features were becoming transparent. He was becoming spectral again. I looked at my arm and gasped as the same thing started happening to me. My mind swirled dizzily. I felt like I was going to pass out. I couldn’t stand anymore. I fell down . . . down . . . down.

  22

  escape

  When I opened my eyes, I was staring up into Ren’s face.

  “Kelsey! Are you okay? You fell. Did you faint? What happened?”

  “No, I didn’t faint!” I then mumbled, “At least I don’t think I did.” He was holding me in his arms, cradling me close, and I liked it. I didn’t want to like it, but I did.

  “You caught me?”

  He lectured, “I told you I wouldn’t drop you.”

  I muttered sarcastically, “Thanks, Superhero. Now put me down, please. I can stand.”

  Ren set me down carefully and, to my great dismay, my legs still wobbled. He reached out a hand to steady me, and I howled, “I said I can stand! Back off a minute, would you?”

  I had no idea why I yelled at him. He was just trying to be helpful, but I was frightened. Strange things were happening to me that I had no control over. I also felt embarrassed and was overly sensitive about him touching me. I couldn’t think straight when he touched me. My brain got all fogged up like a mirror in a steamy bathroom, so I wanted to get away from him as soon as possible.

  I sat down on the stone border of the pool and put my tennis shoes back on, hoping the dizziness would soon pass.

  Ren crossed his arms over his chest and narrowed his eyes at me. “Kelsey, tell me what happened, please.”

  “I don’t know exactly. I had a . . . a vision, I guess.”

  “And what did you see in this vision?”

  “There were three people, Mr. Kadam, some scary man, and me. All three of us wore amulets, and they were glowing red.”

  He dropped his arms and his face became serious. He asked quietly, “What did the scary man look like?”

  “He looked like . . . I don’t know, a mob boss or something like that. The kind of guy that likes to be in control and kill things. He had dark hair and black, glittery eyes.”

  “Was he Indian?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe.”

  Fanindra had curled up at my feet in her jewelry position. I picked her up, slid her onto my arm, and then looked around desperately. “Ren? Where’s the golden fruit?”

  “It’s here.” He picked it up from where it had fallen at the base of the tree.

  “We should hide it.” I picked up my backpack and yanked out my quilt. I reached for the fruit and took it from Ren carefully, making sure our hands didn’t touch, and then I wrapped it in my quilt and stowed i
t in the backpack. I guess I’d been a little bit too obvious in my desire to avoid touching him, because he was scowling at me when I looked up at him.

  “What? You can’t even touch me now? Nice to know I disgust you so much! Too bad you couldn’t convince Kishan to come with you so you could avoid being with me altogether!”

  I ignored him and yanked my shoelaces into double knots.

  He gestured toward the city and smiled mockingly, “Whenever you feel recovered enough, rajkumari.”

  I glared and poked him in the chest. “Maybe Kishan would have been less of a jerk. And for the record, Mr. Sarcastic, I don’t like you very much right now.”

  He narrowed his eyes at me. “Welcome to the club, Kells. Shall we proceed?”

  “Fine.” I turned my back to him, adjusted the straps on the backpack, and marched off on my own.

  He threw up his hands in exasperation, “Fine!”

  I hollered back, “FINE!” and walked stiffly back to the city with him following silently behind me, fuming.

  When we passed the first building, the ground started shaking. We stopped and turned to look at the golden tree. It was sinking back into the ground, and the two pool halves were moving back together. There was a strange glow coming from inside the four monkey statues.

  “Uh, Kells? I think it might be wise to exit the city as soon as possible.”

  We double-timed our pace and jogged briskly between the buildings. I heard a hiss and a screech, followed by several more. Monkey statues were glowing and coming to life. Something moved overhead.

  Small black and brown figures leapt across buildings following us. The screeches became cacophonous, and the noise level was incredible.

  I yelled over at Ren as I ran, “Perfect! Now we’re being chased by hoards of monkeys! Perhaps you would care to name their species as we’re attacked, just so I can appreciate the special traits of said monkey as it kills me!”

  He ran along beside me. “At least when the monkeys are harassing you, you don’t have any time to harass me!”

  The monkeys were getting close. I almost tripped over one as it darted in front of my legs. Ren leapt over a fountain with his tiger power. Show-off.

  “Ren, you’re holding back. Just get out of here! Take the backpack and go.”

  He laughed acerbically as he ran ahead of me; then, he turned to look at me while jogging backward, “Ha! You wish you could get rid of me that easily!”

  He ran a bit farther ahead of me and switched to the tiger. Then he barreled back toward me and actually leapt over my running body into the throng of monkeys to slow them down.

  I shouted back at him while still running, “Hey! Careful where you jump, Mister! You almost took my head off!”

  I kept on course, pumping my legs as fast as they would go. I heard terrible noises behind me. Most of the monkeys had switched to full-on attack mode. Ren was biting, slashing with his claws, and roaring thunderously. I looked back over my shoulder. Brown, gray, and black monkeys covered his body and clung to his fur. A dozen or so monkeys were still chasing me, including the huge, baboon from the reflecting pool.

  I turned a corner and finally saw the drawbridge. A monkey leapt and latched itself onto my leg, slowing me down. I tried to shake it off as I ran.

  Batting at him ineffectually, I hollered, “Stu-pid mon-key . . . get . . . off!” In response, he bit my knee.

  “Owww!” I shook my leg harder as I ran and stomped my foot down hard to make the ride as jarring as possible for the little hitchhiker. Just then, Fanindra animated the top half of her body. She hissed and spat at the monkey, who screeched and immediately let go of my leg.

  “Thanks, Fanindra.” I patted her head as she settled back down on my arm again.

  I reached the gate, crossed the bridge, and stopped on the other side. Ren was bouncing toward me trying to shake monkeys off his back. Several monkeys were storming toward me. I kicked at them viciously, quickly threw off my backpack, and took out the gada.

  I started swinging the gada like a baseball bat at the monkeys. I hit one with a sickening smack, and it whimpered and hightailed it back to the city. The problem was that I was able to hit a monkey only every third try or so. One jumped on my back and started pulling my hair. Another attached itself to my leg. I continued swinging the gada back and forth in front of me, and eventually ended up being able to get rid of most of them.

  Ren ran down the drawbridge with about fifteen monkeys clinging to his fur. He bounced over, leapt into the trees, and banged his body up against the trunks, first on one side and then the other. He leapt up high to rub his back on a branch and scrape the remaining monkeys off.

  The needle trees came alive, shot leafy tendrils down to ensnare the malicious simians by their legs and tails, and then pulled their shrieking bodies up into the branches. They were too lightweight to fight back and soon disappeared into the treetops.

  Meanwhile, I swung the gada at the gray baboon but he darted around to avoid being hit. He was too fast for me and chattered at me violently. He swung his long arms and hammered my body at every opportunity. He was strong enough to make his blows hurt. Each pound from his monkey arms battered against my already tired muscles. I felt like I was being tenderized. A tiny monkey sat on my shoulder and tugged on my braids so hard that it brought tears to my eyes.

  Free of monkeys, Ren jogged over, detached the monkey’s fingers from my braids, plucked the tiny monkey off my shoulder, and threw him hard back through the city gate. The tiny monkey bounced, rolled on the ground, and then got up, hissed at us, and disappeared. Ren took the gada from my hand and raised it to threaten the baboon. The baboon must have realized that Ren’s aim was better than mine because he shrieked loudly and headed back to the city too.

  I sat down hard on the ground panting. The city became eerily quiet. Not a monkey hiss or screech could be heard.

  Ren turned around to look at me. “Are you okay?”

  I waved my hand at him dismissively. He crouched down, touched my cheek, looked me up and down, and then smirked.

  “That was a pygmy marmoset, by the way. Just in case you were wondering.”

  I wheezed. “Thank you, oh Walking Monkey Dictionary.”

  He laughed and got out bottled water for both of us, then handed me an energy bar.

  “Aren’t you going to eat one?”

  He put a hand on his chest and scoffed. “What, me? Eat an energy bar when the jungle is full of delicious monkeys? No thanks. I’m not hungry.”

  I nibbled my energy bar in silence and checked the Golden Fruit to make sure it wasn’t bruised. It was still safely wrapped up in my quilt.

  Between bites, I said, “You know, all in all, we made it out of the city fairly unscathed.”

  His mouth fell open. “Unscathed? Kelsey, I have monkey bites all over my back and in other places that I don’t even want to think about!”

  “I said fairly.”

  He grunted at me.

  After a quick meal and rest, we started the walk back on the pebbly path between the trees and the creek. Ren banged the trees extra hard as we passed. I started to feel guilty about the way I’d been treating him. I watched his stiff shoulders as he paced angrily in front of me.

  This was hard. I missed his friendship. Not to mention all the other things.

  I was almost ready to apologize when I realized that Kappa were sticking the tops of their heads out of the water and were watching us.

  “Uh, Ren? We have company.”

  Looking at them only seemed to empower them to more action. They slowly raised their heads out even farther and followed our progress with inky black eyes. I couldn’t stop staring at them. They were horrible! They stank like a fetid swamp, and when they blinked, their lids moved sideways like a crocodile’s.

  Their flesh was pale, almost diaphanous, and their pulsing black veins could be seen under their clammy skin. I increased my pace. Ren moved between the creek and me, raising the gada as a warning.

&
nbsp; “Try bowing to them,” I suggested.

  We both started dipping our heads and bowing as we passed, but they ignored us and rose up farther out of the water. They were now standing up and moving forward slowly, mechanically, as if they’d just awakened from a deep sleep. The water currently came up to their chests, but they were getting closer. I turned around and did a deep curtsy type of bow, but it still didn’t work.

  “Keep going, Kelsey. Move faster!”

  We started jogging. I knew I wouldn’t have the stamina to keep up this pace for long, even with Ren taking on the extra weight of the backpack. More Kappa emerged from the water, several feet in front of us. They had long arms and webbed hands. One of them smiled at me, and I saw sharp, jagged teeth. A shiver tore down my spine, and I ran a little faster.

  Now I could see their legs. I was surprised that they had legs like humans. Ridges ran down their backs like a fish spine. Their powerful, muscular legs were covered in brine and pond scum, and their long tails curled like a monkey’s, but ended in a transparent caudal fin. The Kappa swung back and forth menacingly, pulling their feet out of the muck with loud sucking noises while they made their way to the river bank.

  The Kappa were careful to keep their heads level, which made their bodies disjointed. The head stayed in one place while the torso bobbed and swayed, zombie-like. They were about a foot shorter than Ren and I, and they moved quickly, picking up speed while shifting awkwardly forward on webbed feet. It was eerie seeing their bodies accelerate while their heads remained virtually still.

  “Faster, Kelsey. Run faster!”

  “I can’t go any faster, Ren!”

  A horde of white Kappa vampires descended upon us, closing the distance quickly.

  Ren shouted, “Keep running, Kelsey. I’ll try to slow them down!”

  I ran ahead a good distance then turned and jogged backward to see how Ren was faring. He had stopped to try bowing to them again. They paused to assess his action, but contrary to Ren’s mother’s story, the Kappa didn’t bow in return. Gills on the sides of their necks opened and closed, and they opened their mouths to bare their teeth. Viscous black droplets trickled from their mouths as an insipid gurgle turned into a piercing squeal. They surged toward Ren, closing in on their prey.